EFFector - Volume 25, Issue 24 - TPP puts your rights at risk

The draft chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement on Intellectual Property insists that signatories provide legal incentives for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to privately enforce copyright protection rules. The TPP wants service providers to undertake the financial and administrative burdens of becoming copyright cops, serving a copyright maximalist agenda while disregarding the consequences for Internet freedom and innovation.

Apple and Samsung would be better off -- and their consumers would be better served -- if the tech giants took their epic patent battle out of the courtroom and into the marketplace. But that didn't happen. Last Friday, the jury found that Samsung infringed a host of Apple's patents and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

This case is the latest in a long line of high-stakes patent litigation that demonstrates a patent system fundamentally unmoored from its constitutional goal.

The New York Times has published two important op-eds highlighting how the National Security Agency (NSA) has retained expansive powers to warrantlessly wiretap Americans after Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act in 2008. And unlike in 2005 -- when the exposure of the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program provoked widespread outrage -- Congress is now all but ignoring ample evidence of wrongdoing, as it debates renewing the FISA Amendments Act before it expires at the end of this year.

EFF Updates

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AR) has introduced a new federal anti-SLAPP bill called the Free Speech Act of 2012. While the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough, EFF is encouraged to see that Congress is showing renewed interested in passing legislation to prevent so called "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation" (SLAPP) that attempt to censor and chill First Amendment protected speech.

EFF and Craig Newmark's team at craigconnects have created an infographic about Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996. CDA 230 provides websites, blogs, and social networks that host speech with protection against a range of laws that might otherwise hold them legally responsible for what their users say and do.

Location privacy scored a victory in California when the State Assembly overwhelmingly passed an EFF-sponsored location privacy bill, SB 1434. The bill would require law enforcement to obtain a search warrant anytime it requests location information from an electronic device.

EFF recently received a trove of documents from the FAA in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, offering new insights into the public and private use of drones in the United States -- including where they're flying, why they're being used, and what their capabilities are.

A day after we filed an amicus brief arguing law enforcement needs a search warrant in order to obtain cell phone tracking data from wireless carriers, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion, killing privacy protections for a large swath of the country.

The District Court for the Northern District of California issued a ruling that clarifies that the Video Privacy Protection Act applies to online video. The court thereby confirmed what EFF has been arguing for quite some time: that this law protects users' online watching habits.

Fixes to the broken patent system can only come with thorough evidence and analysis, which is why we started our Defend Innovation campaign. But another crucial ingredient is scholarship on the issue. Professor Colleen Chien of Santa Clara University School of Law is conducting a short Patent Demand Survey, and she's looking for your help in collecting relevant data.

A new petition -- authored by Syrian activist DIshad Othman -- pushes for engagement with Syrian President Assad and asks for two concrete actions: A new general license to clarify exemptions for personal communications and security technologies, and a streamlined process for giving clear formal and informal guidance to companies.

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Press releases and EFF announcements & articles may be reproduced individually at will.

EFF established the Pioneer Awards in 1992 to recognize leaders on the electronic frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information technology. This year's winners are hardware hacker Andrew (bunnie) Huang, activist Jérémie Zimmermann, and the Tor Project. The event will be held at the Project One Gallery in San Francisco at 7 p.m.September 20, 2012
San Francisco, CA

South by Southwest has launched their Panel Picker, inviting the Internet community to help select the panels that will be featured at the next festival. There are quite a few panels this year featuring EFF staff and friends. Check them out and vote them up if you want to see them in Austin!

CONSENT is a collaborative project that seeks to examine how consumer behavior and commercial practices are changing the role of consent in the processing of personal data. Rainey Reitman, EFF Activism Director, will be keynoting the conference.September 6-7, 2012
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

For the second year in a row, activist movement Freedom Not Fear is organizing a weekend of protests, workshops, and networking in Brussels to defend fundamental rights in an era of increased surveillance measures. Although EFF will not be there in person, our International Privacy Team is working with our European partners to spread the word about the Freedom Not Fear week of action.September 14-17
Brussels, Belgium

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are all-too-common in today's Internet landscape and are an escalating global problem. This program will address the motives behind and targets of DDoS attacks. It will also explore the various ways attacks are carried out, as well as mitigation techniques and the risks of "unintended consequences." EFF Director of International Freedom of Expression, Jillian York, will be speaking at this event, which is at 10 a.m. at New York's AMA Conference Centers.September 19, 2012
New York, NY

Carol Rossini, EFF Director of International Intellectual Property will be the keynote speaker at the OpenEd conference in Vancouver talking about Open Education -- specifically, copyright exemptions and limitations for education.October 16-18, 2012
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Internet Days Forum is one of Sweden's largest conferences on Internet policy and technology. EFF Director of International Freedom of Expression, Jillian York, will be giving a keynote talk.October 22-23, 2012
Stockholm, Sweden

Join EFF Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury at the Bar Association of San Francisco's 2012 Barristers Annual Meeting for an in-depth legal discussion of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in United States v. Jones, requiring law enforcement to obtain a search warrant before installing a GPS device onto a car.October 26, 2012
San Francisco, CA

User Ron Davis responded to a TPP post on our Facebook page with a strong statement: "The battle to preserve basic freedom of speech on the Internet may be the most important battle of all, because without free speech there are no other freedoms. Go EFF!"